


Milk in Your Tea?

by Munarloth



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Muggle AU, jily, just so gd fluffy tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2019-01-30 23:47:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12663930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Munarloth/pseuds/Munarloth
Summary: Your prompt: ‘I’m staring at my single & hot neighbour raking up a bunch of leaves in their backyard and jumping into them and now I’m in love?’ au





	Milk in Your Tea?

“ _Hello_?”

“He’s doing yardwork again.”

“ _Is he wearing a flannel shirt this time_?”

“No, it looks like an old school hoodie.”

“ _Where did he go_?”

“Can’t really tell - looks like it says Hogwarts. Have you heard of it?”

“ _Nope_.”

“Oh God, I think he’s looking!”

Lily dropped the curtain and stepped back from the window. She could still see him through the white lace as he paused crossing the lawn, seeming to look up in her direction. He stood still for just a moment, then continued towards the back porch, soon disappearing from view.

“ _Did he see you_?”

“I don’t think so.”

“ _You should go talk to him_.”

“While he’s working?”

“ _You could offer him some tea or something_.”

“Yeah, maybe…”

Below in the yard he reappeared, now carrying a rake. She crept closer to the window as he dragged leaves across the grass into a small pile.

“ _Lils, you still there_?”

“What? Oh, yeah, sorry.”

“ _I’m gonna go, leave you to your drooling--_ ”

“I’m not drooling!”

“ _Right, sure. Snapchat me if he gets hot and takes his top off_.”

“Will do. Bye, Marlene.”

She hit the ‘end’ button and slipped her phone back into her pocket, sinking down into the chair that she had already kept by the window even before the fit neighbor moved into the downstairs apartment. He’d only been there for a few weeks and they’d yet to have a proper introduction but that hadn’t stopped her from trying to find him on social media, though all she’d had to go on was ‘J. Potter’ newly chicken-scratched onto the mailbox next to hers. Unfortunately, her detective skills weren’t quite up to standards and she hadn’t had any luck finding him anywhere on the internet. So far, her knowledge was limited to that he seemed to like spending time outside and that he might have a dog if the barking sounds from downstairs that began suddenly over the last week were to be believed. Her intel also included that he was extremely attractive insofar as she could trust her own vision from a third story window.

She tucked her knees up and found her place in the book she’d been reading before she’d been so rudely interrupted by J. Potter, but it was no use. Her eyes kept straying from the page as his movements flickered through the lacy curtains and she soon found herself reading the same sentence for what had to be the fifth time in a row. She shut the book with a clap and turned her back on the window, moving to her small kitchen. She set water to boil in the electric kettle, pausing as she reached into the cabinet and finally coming out with two mugs. If he had half the leaves raked up when the water was hot, then she’d make two mugs of tea. 

She tapped her fingers on the counter as she waited for the kettle, looking around at the small room. It wasn’t big enough for a table but she’d fit a small cart against the wall between the counters and made do with the space she had. It helped that she had no roommates to split the 4 rooms allotted to her in this, her first real “adult” apartment. It was really just the in-law apartment on the third floor in an old house in a woody neighborhood, but it suited her just fine. She’d been there two and a half years and, come to think of it, had never done any yardwork in all of her time there. The landlords had a handyman who came by to fix loose screws and mow the grass every few weeks and there were some plots out back that she supposed she could’ve set up as a garden, but... She glanced over the drooping spider plant on top of the fridge and grimaced, jumping when the kettle whistled next to her. 

She dropped a tea bag into one mug and poured the water over, then set the kettle back down and crept back to the window. She caught herself tip-toeing and shook her head, rolling her eyes as she pulled back the curtain. He was still out there, and - yes, the yard looked about half done. That was it, then - two mugs. She prepped the other mug and pulled the milk out of the fridge but - did he like milk? She didn’t even know his first name, how should she know how he takes his tea? And how was she even going to get it to him anyway? It’s not like she could just waltz out the back door and hand it to him without so much as a “hello”. 

She bit her lip, looking back and forth between the mugs and the milk jug, then walked the ten steps back to the window. She took a deep breath, nodded one small nod, and opened the window. “D’you like milk in your tea?”

He froze, his rake halfway to the growing pile of leaves, and looked around the yard. A dog started barking and though she couldn’t see it, she thought it might be on the porch below. 

“Up here!”

He turned around completely, looking up at the house and shading his view with one hand over his brow. “Erm, hello?” 

“How do you take your tea?”

His face was screwed up against the sun despite his hand, and even with his glasses she wasn’t positive that he could really see her in the window. She put her hair behind her ear, that maybe the movement would help track his vision. That had to be why he didn’t answer at once - not because a strange girl was shouting at him about tea from an upstairs window. The barking continued. 

A moment longer in silence, and then - “Splash of milk?”

“Ok!”

She left the window open, curtains fluttering, and finished up with the milk, blowing gently against the steam rising from the mugs as she made for the door. Shoving her feet into the sneakers she’d left out the night before, she cursed as a splash of tea spilled over onto her wrist. It was fine - that one would be hers. 

Her apartment was serviced by a staircase up the side of the house from a second door on the front porch. She made her way around the walk to the side and stopped short at the gate to the backyard when she was met with a large mat of black, barking fur. 

“Padfoot, chill out!” 

The dog obeyed as much as it was able, quieting and backing off from the gate despite the fact that its whole body continued to vibrate from how hard its tail was wagging. 

“Hello! Hello how are you!” Lily couldn’t help how her voice dipped and skipped when she greeted the dog, and J. Potter’s tone matched her own as he crossed the lawn.

“You love meeting new people, don’t you? Who’s a good boy? Who’s the best boy in the whole wide world?” He stood over the dog, knees slightly bent, petting and rubbing him all up and down his sides, which did nothing to calm Padfoot down and in fact somehow made him shake even harder as he barked happily.

Lily bumped the gate latch with her elbow and slipped through, closing it again with her hip. “Hi.”

He looked up from the dog, a huge grin on his face. “Hello. You must be Evans from upstairs?”

“Lily,” She nodded.

“I’m James, and this is Padfoot.”

“Nice to meet you.” She held out her right hand - no, wet wrist - switched to her left, offering him the mug. “This one’s yours.”

“Thank you.” He took it, one hand still on Padfoot’s collar. “He doesn’t jump, but he’s very...eager.”

“Oh no it’s fine, you can let him go. We always had dogs when I was growing up.”

“Well, in that case--” James let go of Padfoot, who immediately rushed to Lily’s crotch nose-first. “Oh God, Padfoot where are your manners?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” Lily laughed, keeping one hand tight around her mug as she scratched vigorously behind Padfoot’s ears. “I didn’t know they allowed dogs here.”

“I got special permission - my best mate Sirius brought him when he visited last week, said he didn’t want me getting too lonely now that I’m living out on my own.”

“Aww, how sweet!”

She petted Padfoot a few moments more and James sipped his tea. It hit her just then that her plan didn’t have much in the way of follow-up - it began and ended with tea, which, now delivered, didn’t really offer much in the way of introductory conversations.

“So, erm...I live upstairs.”

“So I gathered,” James grinned. “Have you lived here long?”

“A few years. It’s comfortable, and close to work.”

“Oh? What do you do?”

“Um,” She took a quick sip of her tea, crossing her fingers when it was cool enough to not burn her tongue upon impact. “I teach kindergarten.”

“Sounds messy.”

“Depends on the craft of the day. What do you do?”

“IT.”

“Ah. Sounds...tech-y.”

Finished sniffing every bit of Lily that he could reach, Padfoot crossed back to James before bounding across the yard to the half-finished pile of leaves.

“Padfoot, no!”

James’s hands were quick to bury themselves in his hair, knotting over his ears as he watched his dog run back and forth through his last half-hour’s worth of work. 

Lily couldn’t help giggling, covering her mouth with her hand. 

“You know they have someone who comes and does the yardwork, right?”

“Yeah,” James blushed, still watching Padfoot. “I like doing it, though. It’s nice, being outside, since I spend all day in front of a computer screen.”

“Oh, true, that makes sense. I wouldn’t have thought of it that way - I’m always outside for recess.”

“God, I miss recess.” There was such a note of longing in his voice that Lily had to hide her smile in her mug. 

“Having Padfoot must help, then.”

“Hmm?”

“You know, walks and stuff…”

“Oh, yeah, he gets me out. No swings when you’re walking a dog though.”

“Maybe they’ll let us put a swingset out here if you keep doing the yardwork for free.”

James snapped his fingers and sipped his tea. “That, Evans, is a wonderful idea.”

She ducked her head against a blush and walked past him to sit criss-cross on the low patio wall. “Guess you have some work to do in the meantime - now with Padfoot helping with the leaves.”

“Ugh, I know.” His head fell back and he sighed loudly, then put his mug down next to Lily and ran out to join Padfoot in the yard. 

He stopped in front of the dog, knees bent and arms outstretched, and Padfoot immediately pounced on him. They fell backwards into what leaves were left and rolled around, Padfoot barking as much as James was laughing. Lily chuckled and settled in with her tea as James picked up the rake, and they chatted as he gathered the leaves. Padfoot eventually came and laid against the patio wall in front of her and she toed off one shoe to rub his side with her socked foot. 

James had gotten a job in the city after getting his degree, but moved to take a job closer to his aging parents. He had actually grown up in the area, and Lily marveled that they’d never known each other as kids, despite the fact that this was really more her grandma’s town than her own - it still seemed like they should’ve run into each other at some playground or other during her summers here decades past. She still couldn’t believe that he actually enjoyed yardwork, which he countered with disbelief at her actually enjoying reading for fun. He clearly just hadn’t found the right books yet, and she - well, ok, maybe there is no excuse for enjoying yardwork. He joined her on the wall when he finished with the leaves, sipping tea long gone cold. She smiled when he absentmindedly messed up his hair and pretended not to notice when his thigh brushed against her own. 

It was time to go back inside when she shivered against the chill of the setting sun, but they couldn’t separate before he promised to make dinner for her the next night - as thanks for the tea, of course. She pulled out her phone to snap a quick picture of James and Padfoot disappearing into the lower house to send to Marlene, the caption writing itself - “I think I’m in love”.

Her response was swift. “ _With the man or the dog_?”

Lily rolled her eyes and went back upstairs. It was far too early yet to tell between the two, anyway.


End file.
